Surfing to Keep Them Afloat

SAN CLEMENTE —  Hugh Ward knew his son was talented, but he didn’t know that a fateful decision five years ago to keep his family in San Clemente so his son could pursue a surfing dream would end up bonding--and saving--the entire family.

Now, months after a cancerous tumor the size of a plum was removed from his brain, Ward, 43, is thanking his stars, his son and the surf.

With dad recuperating and undergoing chemotherapy after brain surgery, Christopher Ward, 17, who has evolved into an accomplished surfer, is keeping his family afloat financially with his earnings from surfing.

“I never thought it would be like this,” Hugh said. “About five years ago, when he was 12, I needed to change my family’s economic future. I had lost a job and I wanted to go back to Texas because that’s where I’m from.

“We put our cards on the table that night,” Hugh said. “Chris said to me, ‘Hey, Dad, I want to stay here.’ He said that when he got older he wanted to be a professional surfer and then he could pick up the slack. I told him, ‘Chris, I always had this vision of having a son becoming a professional surfer.’ We all said, ‘Let’s stay.’ ”

The gamble paid off.

With Chris now earning about $100,000 a year, he’s paying the Wards’ rent on a hilltop home with an ocean view, and other expenses during his father’s illness.

“He’s learning some big lessons early about taking care of his family,” said Andy Fomenko, a family friend and the youth’s manager. “There aren’t too many 17-year-olds out there with an opportunity to do something with their income.”

Chris vaguely recalled that fateful family meeting where the choice was made to stay. He said he was so young then, about 11 or 12, that he did not appreciate the seriousness of the family’s decision.

“I honestly never thought they would ever move,” he said. “I had a pretty good feeling we would be staying here.”

As for his new role as his family’s financial savior, “I’m doing this just because I’m a member of the family. It’s a natural thing to do.”

Hugh Ward left Texas in the mid-’80s as a refugee from Houston’s oil industry, where he made rigging equipment. He had only $200 in his pocket and a vision that someday his son would carve out a name for himself.

He found work here selling furniture and later had his wife, Bunny, a native of Thailand, bring their children, Julie, now 20, and Chris, to California. A stepdaughter, Ann, 24, still lives in Texas.

After the climactic decision to stay in San Clemente rather than go back to Houston, Chris devotedly practiced his skills at his home break, a local surfing beach known as 204, off El Portal in San Clemente.

But before surfing became his passion, there was a slight snag.

“Chris hated the water and didn’t even like to swim,” his dad recalled. “We couldn’t get him in the water.”

“It was cold and I didn’t like the salt in it and everything,” Chris said. “And I didn’t know how to swim.”

The family enrolled the boy in swim classes at Ole Hansen pool. When he was 8, he got his first Boogie board and joined thousands of other Southern California youngsters who spend countless hours in the rolling breakers of the blue Pacific.

When Hugh bought him a used surfboard for $50, it was kismet.

“I started standing up on my surfboard and I ended up liking the water so much and I just kept on doing it,” Chris said.

The rest is like something out of a movie. He learned so fast that at age 9 he was entering contests and winning. Surf shops wanted him to ride for them, while professional surfers were calling his dad, saying Chris would become a star by the time he was 12.

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So, although Hugh Ward wanted the family to return to Texas, they stayed, invested in their son’s dream and watched him bloom.

“He was winning everything in sight,” said Fomenko, then a professional surfer who spotted the young talent surfing San Clemente’s pier area.

“I was one of those calling up Hugh and telling him that Chris had all this potential,” Fomenko said. “Now, after their decision to stay, he’s made two surf magazine covers, center spreads, and is on every [surf] video there is on the market.”

Fomenko hopes to market the youth as the next Martin Potter or Kelly Slater, two former world champions. In Slater’s case, his surfing prowess has made him a millionaire and helped him launch an acting career as a regular on “Baywatch.”

Fomenko helped Chris win sponsorship through Gotcha (an Irvine-based sportswear company), Aleeda wetsuits and Lost Surfboards.

Many people in the surf industry think Chris can soon join an elite circle of top amateurs who turn professional and cut a swath to the top.

To be a full-time professional surfer, Chris must be 18. Under liberal guidelines, he can sign contracts with sponsors and continue to surf as an amateur, provided that any prize money earned is sent to the United States Surfing Federation, the governing amateur body.

“Chris is an instinctive kind of guy,” said Nick Carroll, editor of Surfing magazine. “He makes his surfing up as he goes along, which shows his potential. He’s spontaneous. You can’t help but notice that it’s a kind of spontaneous, free style of surfing.”

For Chris’ father, watching his son grab the brass ring has been a gift.

But the father’s future is dim. He suffers some memory loss and occasionally stutters. Holding down a job may be out of the question, Hugh said.

He learned of his cancer after he had a grand mal seizure at home. His wife saw it happen and called the fire department.

“I was out like a light on the floor and was shaking like an epileptic,” Hugh said. “Next thing I knew, I was staring up at paramedics in my living room.”

A week later, he suffered another seizure. However, he was between jobs and the $200 cost to see a neurologist was prohibitive. In addition, he didn’t have health insurance and ran up a $4,000 hospital bill in two weeks from both seizures.

The Air Force veteran’s condition finally was diagnosed after a visit to the Veteran’s Administration hospital in La Jolla.

By that time, he was having frequent seizures, earaches, and couldn’t see out of one eye because of pressure on the brain from the tumor, he said.

In September 1994, doctors removed 60% of the tumor. He has had radiation and is now on chemotherapy. Although he continues to have seizures, he now knows beforehand when one is coming.

“I go and sit down and prepare for it,” he said.

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Economically, it’s been tough, Hugh admits. He gets $1,165 monthly in Social Security disability income and his son helps with the rest. His wife, a manicurist, stays home and takes care of him.

But they have a strong family, Fomenko said, and an exceptional son.

During a recent interview, Hugh glanced at his son as only a father can and lovingly said: “Chris has turned out to be pretty good for us.”